Reviewed by: Jamil Matheny

"Lions, tigers and bears - oh my!"

What was once a mantra of fear may now be a punchline, if a few funny animals have their way. From the comical adventure family tale of Madagascar from Activision, comes a game that will have an impact on the whole family while filling them up with laughter. Madagascar the videogame makes a strong case against the notion that "the film is always funnier". We'll check it out to see how good the details are for this hilarious title.

Gameplay:

Starting off, you'll have to face the 'people' at New York's Central Park Animal Zoo. You will get to play as Alex the Lion, the pride of the zoo and many other various characters. As you perform for the public, people may either like you or run away if you taunt them. This all depends on how you entertain them and how well you can perform. As you go on, your adventure moves on to escaping the zoo without getting caught, making sure to be careful of the "tight security level".

Within the game, you'll have many other minigames you can play, such as; a mind field game, an army tank shootout, and many more. Whether you win or lose, you'll get an interesting comment from your playable character. Speaking of interesting comments, keeping characters idle always leads to entertainment, especially when they're "hanging around" It will ask you nicely the first time to 'press the 'get off (X) button to continue' or just simply... 'get me off this thing!' A lot of other gameplay features are pretty basic, even for a 5 year old kid to play. Just make sure to follow instructions carefully. In some places, you may get stuck or have a problem getting around. Most of the time you will have to take a stroll around the park before you can continue on to the next part of your journey, continuing to "Release the animals!" Sure, this is not a good way to explain the game, but that's exactly what you have to do. Madagascar is in fact the only game that let players REALLY play with animals in a zoo.

Graphics

The game didn't look too clean, but in the end it didn't look that bad either. I must say that Toys for Bob, the developer of Madagascar, did a swell job on this game as far as the graphics goes. Each of the characters do look a lot like as you may have seen within the movie or in preview trailers. Also, the animals trot, run and even walk quite smoothly just as real animals do. Aside from the character modeling, you've got the environment around that character which is equally gorgeous. Even though this is a children's/family game, I'd still say the game's environmental structure was very well done. The attention to detail is amazing, like some of hay that the character may knock down with their huff or feet, causing it to fly about.

Sound:

For those that have seen the movie, you may feast your ears on the sound quality in this game. It sounds like you're actually at the theater because of some of the somewhat 'harsh' but funny comments that the characters say. In fact, you may end up getting addicted to the game just listening to what some of the animals are talking about. Once you finish your mission, you'll get a funny comment and even if you don't... you'll still get a clever 'oh well, too bad - try again' kind of comment. The language is, of course kid-friendly, but still appealing to adults.



Overall:

Kids games are fun to look at. Madagascar's even better when you're playing it. Madagascar is a great family game that will let you laugh while you're playing a role as your favorite character from the movie. For $39.99 on the Xbox, it's not a bad deal considering the fact that it's kind of like watching the actual movie while multitasking with a controller trying play in a little adventure... playing director, if you will. Madagascar has been released for all major consoles, so no fun-loving family should have to miss out. So, if you're into family fun-filled action/adventure titles, then this is one of those titles where you'll be 'roaring' on the floor laughing your head off in enjoyment.